Bye Running Unopposed For Second Senate Term

WEST HARTFORD — — This week, state Sen. Beth Bye announced that a bill she and Rep. Andrew Fleischmann passed meant the town would receive millions of dollars in funding for a new or renovated Charter Oak International Academy.

Bye is running unopposed for a second term representing the 5th senate district towns of West Hartford, Bloomfield, Burlington and Farmington.

Bye said she's running for a second term because "I felt like being in the senate, I was able to do things, like the Charter Oak thing … where I could see that the policies were having a really big impact on people and on people's lives."

She served on the West Hartford school board for five years beginning in 2001 and was elected as a state representative in 2006.

As co-chair of the legislature's higher education and employment advancement committee, Bye said she's "taken on some pretty thorny big systems and tried to make them work better."

"I think I have a record of looking at complicated things and trying to make them better for constituents," she said.

Bye said she's dedicated to programs that "jump-start the economy," citing the state's investment in The Jackson Laboratory and the establishment of manufacturing centers at community colleges.

"I really think we have to make those kind of investments," Bye said.

Bye lives in West Hartford with her wife, Conard High School teacher Tracey Wilson, and their four children, Brittany, Caroline, Peter and Adam.